


Totally Self-Indulgent Self Insert

by Scarpath



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, Isekai Theme, It's so self-indulgent, Screw it - Freeform, Slightly OP Main Character, hopefully not full on mary sue, if she is, so for real tags, sorry - Freeform, why am i posting this, why did I write this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-15 02:58:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21246365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarpath/pseuds/Scarpath
Summary: When Marie lands in another world, she quickly realizes that it's one she knows well. And early into the story of the world she knows. What else could a fan do but help out the people she'd been rooting for?And potentially fall in love, but let's not worry about that.





	Totally Self-Indulgent Self Insert

**Author's Note:**

> If you don't like trash, just don't read this. It's literally some random thing I'm writing for little to no reason. And having far too much fun writing to stop. Black Clover needs more fics, so I'm trowing mine into the mix. Even if it's self-indulgent trash.
> 
> **Manga Spoilers Ahead!**

I blinked my eyes open, feeling confused. Wasn’t I just at my computer, watching anime? And now I was... on the floor, in a giant circle, surrounded by random people.

Okay. That’s normal. I pinched myself, despite knowing by the feel of things that I wasn’t dreaming. And yup, hello pain.

Not to mention, I listened to the strangers for a long moment, recognizing just enough to know they were talking in Japanese. Of course, since I hardly knew any Japanese I couldn’t say for sure how fluent they were, but they seemed to be fairly adept with the language, possibly even speaking it as their first language.

So why was I here, in some sort of ritual circle, surrounded by people talking in a different language? “Anyone wanna tell me what’s going on?”

Dumb stares. Looks like they don’t even know English. And only when I tried to actually move, did I notice that I was bound up in literal chains.

What was this, some sort of Isekai anime, with me as one of the people transported to a new world? Except they spoke Japanese, so if that was the case I was really unlucky. Transported to another world, where they speak a language spoken in my world... that I never got around to learning for myself.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

My thoughts were a jumbled, panicked mess at this point. I couldn’t make sense of my situation, and it wasn’t a good situation to begin with. 

Because of things like that knife one of the strangers pulled out. I inched back as far as the chains would let me, which wasn’t far. If this really was some sort of Isekai, now would be a good time for a rescue party to show up...

Oh. It really is then. Well, as long as the guys who just came blazing in aren’t out to hurt me too.

Something about them nagged at my mind, but I didn’t have time to mull over it. Everything burst out in a flurry of movement I couldn’t hardly keep up with. In mere moments, the cultists or whatever had been taken care of with...

Magic. There was no science that could explain what I saw. I finally realized, on the bright side, what was bugging me about the people who came to my rescue.

One had a huge, rusty sword. The other fighter was using mirrors. And one guy was standing at the door nervously.

They all had the cloak from my favorite manga. The Black Bulls.

So this wasn’t just an isekai, this was a fanfiction. Great. Just great. Well, to be fair, it was nice that I was in a world I liked, and was familiar to me.

When the boy I assumed to be Asta came over to me, I tried speaking more in English, but he didn’t seem to understand me. He pointed to himself, and said his name. Yup. He was Asta.

I tried to point to myself, but the chains kept me from doing so. Asta carefully helped undo my chains. As he did so, the adrenaline I had been facing finally started to wear off- and pain came with it. I looked down at my leg, and froze.

My left leg looked like it had been snapped in two. My tibia and fibula were busted, and below that my leg was not straight. Looks like when I landed in this world, it wasn’t a smooth landing. That or a cultist had broken it to keep me from running. I’d probably never know, didn’t really want to either.

After a long moment, I tore my gaze away from my leg. I needed to focus on something else. I pointed to myself, arms free from the chains. “M-Marie.” My voice was shaky from the pain.

Asta turned to Gauche, and exclaimed something. I caught the word for little sister, and remembered that I share a name with Gauche’s little sister.

Hopefully that wouldn’t bite me in the butt later.

After the cultists were tied up, Asta gently picked me up. The movement drew a small cry of pain from me, but I tried to hold it back. Finral opened a portal, and finally we left that damned place.

The Black Bulls headquarters was every bit as chaotic as I’d imagined. Luck had apparently managed to taunt Magna enough, though they stopped fighting when they noticed me. Vanessa was passed out drunk, and Charmy was eating.Grey and Gorden were both quite creepy. And it was weird seeing all the animated characters I loved so much as full fledged humans.

Captain Yami was also in the room, and Asta took me straight to him. He spoke some, and I couldn’t make out any of it. The pain was really starting to get to me by this point, and I zoned out some. I was set down on a couch, and took the time to try and sleep.

I’d never had a very high pain tolerance.

I was jolted out of my half-sleep by snapping by my ear. I looked up to see Yami towering over me. I shrunk back a little. 

What I meant to be a snappy “What?” came out far more timid and scared. Even still, it managed to draw a surprised face from Yami.

“English?” The word was heavily accented, but there was no mistaking it. Did a nearby country speak English? I hadn’t seen anything like that, but it was possible... “Earth?”

I blinked. And blinked again. Then I realized. Yami was from  _ ‘The Land of the Rising Sun.’ _ in the anime/manga. I’d thought it was just this world’s version of Japan, but it must be the honest to god Japan. “You’re Japanese? Um...” I pointed to him. “Nippon?”

He nodded. He  _ nodded _ . Holy hell, I was apparently far from the first person to be transported to this world from my own. 

Yami seemed to decide on something. He called out to Asta and Finral. Asta picked me up, and Finral made another portal. Being picked up sent a fresh lance of pain through my leg. I made a strained noise, but it was fine. Especially when I thought about where we were probably going. The Magic King.

I was proven right when we started walking towards a castle. The thing I was looking forward to the most, though, was probably the chance to be healed. My leg hurt like hell, after all. I was more than thankful that they took me pretty much straight to the healer. When my leg was healed up fairly quickly, I said an accented “Arigato.”

Looks like watching anime so much was paying off, even if just by the fact that I knew a little bit of the language being spoken. If not much. And no one was talking in the entertainment version of the language, so I only knew very few words. But a few words was better than none, when I didn’t know if there was a magic that could teach me quickly.

But, of course, I wasn’t the only one thinking about the language barrier. As such, a mage seemed to be called in, who used more magic on me. “Can you understand me now?”

I shuddered, a little off put by the dissonance. I could still hear the Japanese, but layered over it was English. “That is... disorienting. But yes. Thank you.”

Yami spoke. “Good. Let’s get moving then.” I tenderly stood, carefully putting weight on my newly healed leg. It was still a little tender, but considering it was facing the wrong way a few minutes ago, that was fine. I barely even limped.

“Where to, Sir?” I managed to catch myself before managing to say captain or Yami, and instead managed to turn it into a sir. It worked.

“No questions now that we understand each other?” Yeesh, Yami really was intimidating when he wanted to be. Good thing I could easily ignore that.

“Well, it’s clear this isn’t my world. Unless multiple people suddenly gained magic and lost their nicer clothing all while I zoned out just long enough to wake up in a creepy circle in a basement where everyone speaks Japanese. And you seem to know what Earth and Japan are, so unless Earth is the name of this world, and there’s also a Japan here... You’re from the Japan I know of.” Word vomit. That was the best way to explain what that was. But whatever, it probably was good enough.

I got no response other than Yami starting to walk. I followed, disregarding the awkward silence. Asta broke it a moment later, and I jumped. Somehow, I’d forgotten he was there. He had clearly been holding back questions, so they flowed out easy now. “You’re from another world, Captain Yami? I thought you were just a foreigner! What’s Japan? And Japanese?”

Yami showed no interest in answering, so I answered the latter questions. “Japan is a country in the world we come from. They speak Japanese there, and it seems to be very similar to the language we’re speaking at the moment.”

“Oh! Wait, if Yami is from Japan, then what about you? You spoke a different language, right?” Asta had a lot of energy. I couldn’t see the sparkles in his eyes the same way as in the anime, but I could tell they’d be there if I was seeing this through that lense.

“I’m from America. I know a handful of Japanese words, but my native language is English.” I couldn’t help but answer Asta’s questions. Sure, in this world he was probably seen as mostly an adult, and held a dangerous job, but I couldn’t help but see a child when I looked at him. Even if I was only 5 years older. Didn’t help that he was pretty short.

Before Asta could respond, we came up to a large pair of doors. Yami strode right in, so Asta and I followed. The magic king stood in the room, and turned towards us as we entered. “Julius, I’ve got an interesting case for you.”

“You always do, Yami.” Julius sounded even more kind than in the anime. Seems the voice actor didn’t quite do him justice.

I waved. “Hi! My name is Marie, and I come from the same world as Yami. Different country though.”

And there was the goofy side of the magic king. “Really! How did you arrive here?”

I gave a bit of a frown. “I’m not fully sure, but that’s probably because I’m new to the whole magic thing. I was relaxing in my home, zoned out, and woke up chained and in the middle of some sort of magic circle. I think some cult or something pulled me here somehow.”

Julius got a little more serious. “I see. Is there anything else you think could be important?”

My heart jumped. If this was earlier in the story, I could make a difference by revealing what I knew. But would they believe me? Oh, wait, Marx. He could help show that I wasn’t lying, and I could have Vangeance be in the room to prove it another way. And save Patri a lot of heartache.

I turned to Yami to start revealing things, one thread at a time. “Yami-san, when did you end up in this world? What year was it?”

“It was 2003.” I nodded to acknowledge that I heard the answer, and thought about it for a moment. 

“Okay, so right about when computers were becoming larger. Early internet days, and a few years before smartphones. What really matters though is that you know what anime is. So, a few weeks ago I found an anime that’s fairly new, I think it might have started in 2018? Not complete yet, nor the manga. It’s called Black Clover. It follows the story of a boy born with no magic in a world where everyone has magic. Follows how he aspires to become a magic knight, and eventually magic king. Sound familiar? Because I seriously feel like I’m in a dream of some sort. Or a fanfiction.” I had to take a moment to breathe. I was freaking out a little, talking about this out loud really made it sink in.

I pat my cheeks and shook my head to try to calm down. “If anything I say next is wrong, then maybe I’m just imagining things. Going crazy. But Asta was abandoned as a baby at a church in the Forsaken Realm. He was with another infant, named Yuno. When they grew up, Yuno developed powerful magic... while Asta had none. After a drunkard tried to take the necklace Yuno was abandoned with, Asta managed to fend him off, despite being a young child with no magic versus a full grown idiot. The two of them promised to try to become Magic King, the position Julius holds. Yuno went from the crybaby who followed Asta around to Asta’s rival.”

Asta looked... freaked out at this point, so I hurried through that part of the story. “When it came time for Asta and Yuno to get their grimoires, Yuno got a four leafed clover, and Asta didn’t get a grimoire at all. Then someone attacked Yuno to try and steal his grimoire. In the fight with the ex-magic knight, Asta finally got his grimoire, a battered one in which details couldn’t be made out. It’s actually a five leafed clover.”

At this, Asta hurriedly pulled out his grimoire. He looked really closely at it, and exclaimed when he saw the clover. “I never saw that before! It  _ does _ have a clover! And a five leafed one! Wait, what does the fifth leaf mean?”

I smiled, and pet the top of Asta’s head. “The first 3 leaves of a clover represent faith, hope, and love. The rare fouth leaf represents luck. And in the fifth, lies a demon. Five leaf clover grimoires are created when someone with a four leafed clover gives into despair. The person... the person who had your grimoire before you faced a very rough end. I’ll talk more about him later though. Not to that point in your story.”

Asta stared at his grimoire with a new sense of wonder. He didn’t seem to know what the demon was about, which lead me to assume that this was fairly early in the story. I turned my gaze back to Yami and Julius. “To tell that part of the story, I’d like to request Yuno and his captain be present. If you need Marx to confirm that I’m telling the truth, then I am fine with that.”

Julius shook his head. “I don’t know how our future became a story in your world, but I feel that this might be a blessing. I’ll call the two of them here.”

“Thank you.”

While we waited for the two of them to get there, I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I took a moment to turn on airplane mode, and turn off everything I could think of to preserve battery life. Then, I motioned for Yami to come over. “Come’ere. I’m about to blow your mind with how far technology has advanced since you ended up here.”

Yami seemed reluctant to admit to himself he wanted to know. I took secondhand pride at how I managed to get his cig to fall out of his mouth with shock at what I showed him. I glared at the cancer stick. “Also, you may have only been what, 12 when you ended up here, but I’m pretty sure that’s plenty old enough to know how bad smoking is for you. Do you want to get lung cancer or COPD?”

“Tch, don’t nag your elders.”

I pointedly stomped out the fallen cig. “You’re only 8 years older than me. I’ve got friends your age, and I’d nag them just the same. You’ll wipe 20 years from your lifespan like that.”

Seeming frustrated that his intimidation hadn’t worked, Yami pulled out his box of cigs, and actually threw them at me. I hadn’t expected my nagging to work so well, but I’d take it. I passed the box back. “You’ll only ever quit if  _ you _ want to quit. It’s too much of a challenge if you aren’t motivated. I will at least try to encourage you to not smoke as much though.”

“Tch, I’ll show you, American. I won’t smoke another one.” Okay, Yami was like Undyne. Somehow I wasn’t surprised, though I was amused.

I glanced over at the other two who were in the room, and nearly burst out laughing. Both of them had amazed looks, and I imagined their sparkly eyes from the manga. I gave a couple chuckles. “Even in the flesh instead of cartoons, I can still see the sparkles in your eyes.”

“Cartoons?” Julius still had the sparkles in his eyes, clearly eager to know more about my world. I pulled out my phone, and went to the pictures I had saved from the manga. I turned my phone to show the screenshot. It was a picture of Julius with his sparkly eyes. Then I flicked it over to show a picture of Asta’s eyes.

“Sparkly eyes. You two are the only ones who do it in the anime and manga, too.” I had a smile on my face, forgetting the stress of my situation for just the moment.

“What’s the difference between anime and manga?”

I hummed in response to the question. It would kill my phone battery faster, but I went over to my videos. Unfortunately, the scenes I had saved was the one where Yuno reacts to Asta after turning into an elf, and the one where Licht and the first wizard king talked again for the first time in 500 years. My smile slipped. “I’ll show you a scene from the anime once I’ve told more of my story. For now the ones I have would bring up too many questions that I can’t answer until Yuno and Vangeance are here.”

Though, as if my words had summoned them, the two of them arrived. Vangeance bowed to Julius, and Yuno shot me an odd look. I took a deep breath. “Speak of the devil... Okay, I can continue, and hopefully save a lot of heartache.”

My heart was pounding. This could go very bad very fast if I wasn’t careful. “Okay. Okay, to catch the two of you up, I’m from another world, where the events that will come soon are just a story. Well, to double check, Asta, how many swords do you have?”

Asta’s brow furrowed. “Just one. Why? Do I get more?”

I heaved a heavy breath. “Oh good. This is really into the story as far as I know it. Really early.”

I turned to Vangeance. “Patri, you were tricked. It was not Licht who reincarnated you. It was a demon, the same one who lead the humans to attack your people. The prince  _ was not the one who betrayed you. _ ”

Vangeance’s features warped, the shock in what I’d said apparently enough to draw Patri out. Good, that was what I’d wanted. Patri removed the helmet that his Vangeance’s scars, it not needed when he was out. “How do you know this? How can you prove it?”

“I know this because of the story I followed back in my world. And I can prove it by knowing more about the elves than any human alive should know. You are all loved by mana, having extreme magic power. You got a four-leaf clover when Vangeance got his own grimoire. Lict was your friend, and loved by many elves. At one point, the princess of Clover Kingdom ended up in your lands, and Licht saved her. He became friends with both her, and her older brother.”

I took a breath. I was really rushing to get this all out before things could go sour. “Licht eventually ended up marrying the princess, and she was carrying his child. It was at this point that a demon looking to cross into this world spoke into the ears of many of the human royalty, managing to convince them that Elves should be killed, so that the humans could be loved by mana too. Not really a convincing argument, but they fell for it, and attacked. All elves were killed... except for one. Licht.”

I closed my eyes. This had been painful for me to know when it was just a story. Now it was just heartbreaking. “He gave into despair, thinking that his friend and brother-in-law might have betrayed him, and all of his kin were dead for it. The prince had been summoned to meet with his father, but his father wasn’t there when he arrived. His servant came while he was waiting, and let him know that the magic items they so lovingly created had been taken. He knew right away what was going on, but by the time he arrived it was already too late.”

I sighed, heart heavy. “When someone with a four-leaf clover grimoire gives into despair, a demon is born. The demon who caused the deaths of your people knew this, and knew that Licht had a four-leaf clover. He did everything he could to encourage despair, so he could try to manifest in this world, using Licht. Asta here has Licht’s grimoire, and the very same demon who was born is still connected to the tome.”

“I don’t know everything yet. The story isn’t finished, in my world. But I think that because in his last moments, Licht saw his friend and knew he wasn’t betrayed that his demon isn’t... well, it’s still probably a fair deal evil, but I think it’ll be far better than any other. In the end though, it was too late for Licht. He’d already started to... warp. His body was becoming that of a demon. He begged the prince to kill him, before the demon who started it all could gain full control over him. The prince did so, as one last favor for his dear friend. The prince likely wouldn’t have lived much longer himself, the battle having taken a lot out of him.”

I spotted Nero sitting on Asta’s hair. I didn’t know where she’d come from, but seeing her caused tears to flow from my eyes. I carefully picked the girl-turned-bird off of Asta’s head. “In effort to be able to fight when the demon made it’s inevitable next appearance, the prince asked his servant to seal him. She managed to turn him to stone, with the keys to reviving him being the magic stones of the elves. He’s stood on top of the head of his best friend in the form of stone for 500 years.”

I wiped at my eyes, then gently started petting Nero. “So-sorry. It was just- when it was just a story to me, it was already sad enough. Now that I know it happened, I just-”

Nero pat my hand with the tip of her wing, in a sort of ‘there there’ motion. The kindness from someone who seemed so gruff in the manga broke me a little, and I let out a short sob. “A-anyways, i-it’s no-ot ev-even my st-ory. Parti and Nero a-are the one’s e-effected most.”

I flinched when Patri stood. Sobs started flowing from me freely when he actually hugged me. “Thank you. You stopped me from doing something very awful.”

Then Asta spoke up. “But wait, why are you saying Nero was involved?”

I couldn’t answer right away. It took me a moment to get my breathing under control. I wiped my tears again. “When someone uses forbidden magic, they do so by touching the realm demons come from. They lose part of their humanity, and with enough times, turn into something else. The prince’s servant did enough that she turned into a bird. It wasn’t all bad though, since it meant someone knew how to unseal the prince.”

Nero nodded. Asta gaped. I wiped my tears one more time, then turned to Patri. “I’ve got a favor to ask. I don’t know how it was done, but when Fana was kicked from her body, your scientist managed to revive her in her own body. The same was done for Vetto and Lyre.”

I thought to Mars. “If you could figure out how to do that, the Fana who the body belongs to has someone she holds very dear. He needs to know she’s alive.”

Patri gave a speculitive look. “I’ll see what I can do.”

I smiled. “Thank you. Hopefully it can be done before Asta first encounters Mars. If they can take Fana with them on that mission, it will change a few things for the better.”

“What mission are you talking of?” Julius asked, which made sense. If he knew what mission it was, he could make sure Fana got sent if she was ready. 

“There’s a dungeon on the border of the Clover and Diamond kingdoms. You sent two teams, one from the Black Bulls, and one from the Golden Dawn. They encountered a team from the diamond kingdom. One of the two was taken out fairly easily, but the other was the result of horrific training, and the fight was really close. The final phase of the training, the children were told to kill each other, with the last one alive being the one to pass. Mars was the last one alive, but Fana’s heart started beating again afterwards.”   
  
“Even still, Mars only knew that he killed her. Not that she revived from the brink. The human mind... it works in odd ways. In order to keep what was left of his sanity, Mars was just left thinking that only the strong could survive. But if he sees Fana, it will help. Asta doesn’t have to nearly die, and Yuno can start to learn the magic he’ll acquire there a different way.”

Yuno seemed to perk up a little. Julius was the one who actually spoke, however. “What magic is that?”

I smiled. Winked. “You’ll just have to see~ I won’t spoil that bit of fun.”

I turned back to Asta. “Now, Asta. Time to teach you something. We should probably go somewhere different though, I wouldn’t want this room to get trashed.”

Patri stood from where he’d been sitting near me. “I’ll go talk with my followers, so William can get back to work before too long.” 

I nodded. “Thanks for listening to my rant. After seeing how powerful you are, I was nervous I’d just get smited or something.” I gave a bit of a nervous laugh.

“Thank you for your bravery.”

I just gave a bit of a sad smile. “I had to take the risk. I don’t think my life is more valuable than a single one of the ones originally lost in the conflicts. Much less all of them. All the humans killed, and the elves dying once again... I couldn’t just sit back and let so many die when I had the knowledge.”

Patri smiled, and... pressed a kiss to my forehead?? I gaped, a blush staining my cheeks. What was that??? “That is still brave, to put other lives before your own.”

I was unable to respond. My face flushed beet red, and I covered it with my hands. As such, I almost missed as Patri’s face shifted into that of William. The captain hugged me, and I gave a little eep noise. “I must thank you too. In one move, you saved me from having to choose between my best friends.”

At that one, I sighed and pulled my hands away from my face. “It would’ve turned out mostly alright in the end, but Julius is much more... useful as he is now. As cute as he was as a kid in the manga.”

“As a kid?” Julius exclaimed a little. “I lost?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’d rather you not die in this version of things. You wouldn’t be nearly as useful with a single page in your grimoire.”

Julius nodded sagely, well pretty much everyone else looked quite confused. I decided to elaborate a little. “If Julius were to die, he can pull some shennangians I’ll leave up to him to explain. When he died in the version of this world I followed, he had very little magic availible, and was only able to come back as a child. He still had all his memories, but his grimoire was reduced to a single page.”

I then turned to point a stren finger at the magic king, disregarding his status completely. “And you! Yami knows now, and you’d better tell Marx. The two of them were distraught when they thought you were dead. Hell, Yami was the one to find your corpse!” I strode over so I could poke Julius in the chest. “People really care about you, don’t make them grieve for nothing!”

Julius raised his hands in surrender. “All right, all right. I’ll be more careful.”

After that, the topic changed in a way I hadn’t quite expected. Julius spoke again. “Now, Marie, I’d like it if you were to join the squads of either of these two captains.”

I blinked. Me, a magic knight? “I don’t have magic, or do I?” I glanced over at Yami. He was from Japan, and he had magic, maybe I did too?

“You have a large amount of mana, once you get a grimoire you’ll be able to use magic.” I blinked again. Huh. I’d have magic.

“Oh. Okay.” I thought about it for a moment, deciding which squad would be better for me. It didn’t take me long to realize that as much as I’d love to be in the same squad as Yuno, I’d fit in much better in the Black Bulls. I turned to Yami. “It would be an honor if I could join your squad, Yami.”

Many of those in the room seemed shocked by my choice. I smiled. “I’m both a commoner, and a forgener. I wouldn’t really fit into the Golden Dawn. Besides, Yami may be from the other side of my world than me, but he is also from my world.”

Yami smiled, and thumped me on the back. “You’d better be prepared to work hard!”

I stumbled forward a little under the force of the pat to the back. To Asta, I asked, “I would like to train my body some, too. If you could help me, that would be great.”

Asta grinned wide, and I felt like I might have signed myself up for something I wouldn’t be able to handle.

After saying our goodbyes, We all went our separate ways. For Yami, Asta, and I, it was to go get me a grimoire. We made our way through town to a large tower. We talked with the keeper of the tower for a little while, before I was taken to a large room covered in books.

It didn’t take long before a grimoire flew from a shelf, and I grabbed it out of the air carefully. It was a red tome, with a phoenix emblazoned on the cover. It’s tail took the form of a four-leaf clover. I ran my hand over the cover gently. “A phoenix, huh? That’s ironic, considering I’ve lived in a city named after a phoenix for a few years now.”

“You got a four-leaf clover, too! Lucky!” 

I smiled at Asta’s exclamation. “Sure. That is what the fourth leaf means after all. Hopefully if I’ve got one of these, I won’t be too much of a burden in your fights. Speaking of, let’s see if we can find a good place to help you meet your demon.”

“My demon?”

“Yup! With practice, you’ll be able to fight much better because of it.” Asta’s eyes were sparkling at this, and he grabbed my hand to pull me out of the tower. I laughed, and let myself be led. “We’ll need a place with relatively low magic. It will probably be easiest to ask Finral to take us back to the base, and just practicing in the forest.”

With that, we went to find Finral. He was trying and failing to flirt with women. And exclaimed with despair when we showed up. We went back to the base.

“Introduce yourself to everyone. I’ll be right back.” I gave a lazy salute to Yami.

I whistled loud to get everyone’s attention, then waved. “Hello! My name is Marie, and I’ll be the newest Black Bulls member, starting today.”

Huh, I guess a random new member at the wrong time of year was enough to actually get the attention of the Bulls. That or it was because last they saw me, I had a badly broken leg and didn’t speak their language. Either way, that suited me just fine.

“Oh, I have your attention. Nice. Now, since I know I can trust everyone here, I come from another world. One where there’s a story about this one. And the story when I was pulled to this world was a fair bit ahead of this one. However, while the information I have was enough to convince the wizard king to have me join the magic knights, I have no fighting or magic skills to speak of. I just got my grimoire a short while ago. Please be patient with me as I learn.” 

I smiled brightly, and Yami came back into the room. He threw something at me, and I barely managed to catch it. It turned out to be a Black Bulls cape and a holder for my grimoire. “Oh, thank you.”

I put them both on, and Asta spoke to the rest of the Bulls. “She chose this squad over the Golden Dawn, and she has a four-leaf clover grimoire! And she’s gonna teach me a way to fight better!”

Well, that caused chaos. No one seemed to care about the fact that I chose this squad, but my grimoire and ability to teach ways to fight caught attention for sure. I found myself swarmed by attention. I held my hands up in defense. “Okay, back off now. Noelle, Finral, and Vanessa, you are the other three I can help most with my knowledge. Everyone else, I’ll go over what I can with you later.”

With that, I had Asta lead us to an isolated place in the forest. “Alright, we’ll start with Asta, since I know best how to help him. First, I’ll warn you, Asta. The demon that your grimoire might not be the worst, but he’s frustrated. He doesn’t have a body, and if given a chance will want yours. You can not give in. The two of you need to learn to fight together.”

Asta thought about this for a long moment. “Can’t we share my body then?”

I smiled. Asta really was kind. “Eventually, I hope so. I don’t know much about him yet, so I don’t know if he’ll willingly pass control of your body back if you give it to him. In the other version of your world, you only talked to him once at the point in the story. Not only that, you didn’t understand that he was where you got the power I’m about to show you.”

Asta frowned. “Okay. I’ll just have to talk with him more this time! If we become friends, then surely I can trust him not to steal my body!”

I pat the top of Asta’s head. “Just be careful, and don’t let yourself be tricked. Now, pull out your sword, please.”

Asta nodded, and pulled out his sword. My mind flatlined for a fraction of a second as it tried to make sense of the complete disregard for the natural laws of the world. I shook myself out of it, reminding myself-magic. “Okay, hold it out flat in front of you.”

I motioned the way I wanted him to hold it, the touched the side of the blade. “Now put your other hand here, and imagine that anti-magic is flowing from the hilt, through your whole body, like blood.”

Asta closed his eyes as he concentrated. I kept a hand on the blade, in hopes that-

I blinked, and we were in Asta’s mind. Looks like my plan worked. I looked behind Asta to see his demon. I waved. “Hello, Demon-san. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

The demon scowled at me. I made a tsk tsk noise. “Now, none of that. I want to work together with you and Asta to try and find a way for you two to share a body. And Asta has made it clear he wants that too. Now, are you going to be difficult, or will you work with us?”

The demon’s expression switched to that of a much more... pouting one. I smiled in response, clasping my hands together. “If that’s settled, I suggest a partial possession. Asta will still mostly control his body, but in return you lend him some of your power?”

“You expect me to take this unfair trade?” The demon was speaking with venom, but I let it roll off of me.

“This is so you can start to prove to us that you won’t just take Asta’s body and run with it if you’re allowed to.” I gave him a sharp look, and he sighed.

“Fine. I’ll take your shitty deal.” 

I smiled widely. “Great! Pleasure working this out with you!”

After that, I was surprised that we were just kicked out of Asta’s mind. The plan had worked, though, and I’d made a deal with a demon on Asta’s behalf, one that benefited us well. Asta now had the same power he’d only learned much later in the story. One side took on the partial likeness of the demon.

I smiled. “Ta-da! Practice getting into this form, holding it for as long as you can, and getting into more than a few times a day if you can. You’ll get attracted to points of strong magic, so try to avoid doing it around other people until you’ve got better control.”

Asta beamed at me. “Thank you so much, Marie!”

I pat the top of his head, careful of the horn. “Knock yourself out. Not literally.”

I then turned to Noelle. “Okay, I’m not sure if I can help you too much yet, but I’m going to try. What is your happiest memory? You don’t have to say it out loud.”

She seemed to scoff. “Why should I listen to a foreigner?”

I gave a falsely sweet smile. “Well, if you don’t want to learn to control your magic, you’re free to leave. I’ll just help Finral and Vanessa then. Go on, shoo. I don’t need you wasting my time with your high and mighty attitude. My country doesn’t have royalty. We elect our leaders. As far as I’m concerned, someone who was merely born into power and never works to earn their title or help those who need help don’t deserve said power.”

I huffed. “So, come to me when you’re ready to stop belittling anyone born of lower status, ready to help them instead.”

I turned to Vanessa, ignoring Noelle’s spluttering. She’d annoyed me enough when she was just a character and I could tell myself it was just a play on the trope. Now she was real, and I wasn’t going to deal with the attitude from someone five years my junior.

“Now, Vanessa. Since I managed to change things, the same event that gained you your red string of fate won’t come to pass. It happened in a moment of extreme stress, when you honestly thought your friends were going to die. I don’t want that to happen again, but I’m not sure how I can help you learn the magic.”

Vanessa looked shocked. “I’ll actually learn that?”

I nodded. “Yes. You’re a member of the Black Bulls.” I glanced over to where Asta was struggling with his new form. “And one of your- our youngest members has a way of inspiring one to do their very best. I have no doubt that you’ll manage to gain the spell, even without a life or death situation. The string of fate takes the form of, interestingly enough, a little red cat. She can touch things to change their fate. That is probably the most I can tell you, but I’m sure you can manage it.”

Vanessa nodded. “Thank you for telling me. I’ll do what I can to learn this new skill.”

Finral next. I turned to him. “Okay. Time to teach you how to use your magic to fight without fighting. You aren’t a fighter, and there is  _ nothing _ wrong with that. However, when you’re forced to backup your team mates, would you like to be able to support them, and let them fight with full power?”

Finral seemed to not care at first, as I’d said I could teach the four of them how to fight better. But when I mentioned fighting without fighting, he seemed to listen a little more. “It... would be nice...”

I smiled. “Okay. The two best support members in the squad are right here, so let’s do a crash course on using strings and portals to help someone fight like never before. Asta!” I called the boy over. His transformation had worn off, and he seemed a little worn out. Still, I knew he could push through.

“Okay, we’re going to simulate a battle.” I quickly leafed through my grimoire, hoping to find something useful. And indeed, one of the only pages filled out was summoning magic. “Okay, good. I can summon something for a test fight. This will be my first use of magic, so let’s see how horrid this goes.”

The page in my grimoire was written in English, thankfully, so I could read it easily. I quickly read everything on the page. “Flame summoning magic: Kitsune.”

A quite adorable fox appeared in front of me. It’s appearance made me quite happy, since many would underestimate it. “Alright, so many enemies will be able to anticipate your moves. As such, you need to be able to act unpredictably. A great way to do so is with the help of a support team. For you, Asta, Finral and Vanessa can actually do a lot. Using portals, Finral can keep the enemy from landing a shot, and get you into potential blind spots. Using strings, Vanessa can move you through the battlefield, serving two purposes. One, she can move you in ways the enemy can’t predict. And two, she can keep you moving, so you don’t have to jump or run, you can stay airborne during a fight.”

Finral and Vanessa seemed to be thinking my words over. And Asta had his sparkly eyes. I smiled, knowing I had them. My kitsune yipped, and started dashing around the clearing. “Okay. The goal is for the three of you to work together to destroy my kitsune here. If I feel like one of you isn’t doing enough, we’ll start over, for as long as I can keep it up.”

And so it began. The three of them were slow at first, awkwardly trying to figure out how to work together. Asta ended up poofing my kitsune once, but I felt like they should try again. Unfortunately, I could only manage to resummon the kitsune a couple more times before I grew winded and knew I was reaching my limit. Still, I pushed for one more try. This wasn’t just training for the three of them, it was training for me, too. It wasn’t fair for me to expect them to work hard when I gave up so easy.

The final fox was my worst yet, and I had to focus hard to even make it keep its form, much less move it around. Still, I pushed myself. But before Asta could even get near it, it vanished on it’s own. I sighed, disapointed in myself a little. “We’ll have to try again some more tomorrow.”

The three of them all smiled at me, and I found myself in the center of them, being praised. “That was amazing!” “I never knew I could fight like that!” “That was a really good first use of magic!”

I laughed a little. “Don’t think we’re done yet. We’re going to be training together, until I can keep a fox up for a while, and you three can move quickly and efficiently to take down enemies. I don’t know how long it will be before our next major battle, but if you three can master what I’ve taught you, it will go so much better than it might have.”

With that, we started to make our way back to the base. There were a few more members of the bulls that I hoped I could help.

The first thing I did when we got back, was ask to speak with Grey in private. I didn’t want to out her if she still wanted to hide her true form even after I talked with her. Once we were alone, I finally spoke. “Grey, I don’t know why you find your true form so embarrassing, but just know this. No one in the Black Bulls will judge you if you do reveal yourself. We’re all misfits here. You’re cute, and you’re powerful. I won’t out you or anything, I just wanted you to know that. And if there’s anything I can do to help you, just let me know.”

And with that, I left the room. Next on my list was the ghost. The oldest Black Bulls member.

I went over to Charmy. “Hey Charmy, could I ask you a favor? There’s someone else I’d like to talk to, but I can only do so with your help. And I’m sure he’d love to actually meet everyone, he hasn’t been able to thanks to a condition he suffers.”

“What do you need?”

“Food that can restore mana. Henry pulls mana from those around him, so Asta is the only Black Bull who can actually be near him normally. But with your food, we can just eat a lot to restore what he takes.” I smiled when Charmy seemed to accept the challenge.

I turned to Asta. “Have you met him yet?”

Asta nodded. “Yeah! Captain Yami told my about him a little while ago!”

“Could you go fetch him? Tell him I know a way for him to meet everyone.” Asta darted off, and I turned to everyone that was still in the room. “Henry can’t help draining mana. If you don’t want your mana drained, or to have to eat a ton of food, then please leave the room. However, Henry would love to meet you, so I hope you’ll all stay.”

Whether curiosity, or my words actually reached them, Noelle was the only one to leave the room. Everyone else stayed. Magna, Luck, Charmy, Vanessa, and Finral were still in the room when Henry came in. I smiled warmly, and started eating a few bites at a time. “Everyone, meet Henry. He owns this mansion, and agreed to let Yami use it as the Black Bull’s base. He’s wanted to meet everyone, but didn’t know how to do so. Thanks to Charmy, though, he can now meet you.”

Henry looked overjoyed to be near other people. He spoke in his slow manner. “Hheeelllloooooo. Iiii’mmm ssoooo haaappppyyyy tooo meeeet yooouuuu.”

A large smile filled my face as I watched the meeting. At one point when things seemed to be dying down, I turned to Charmy. “Thank you. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.”

Charmy seemed to be enthused by the praise.

It made me feel so incredibly happy to see the Black Bulls so happy. It would take me a little time to actually see myself as one of them and not just an outsider, but I was really thankful for the chance.

Though I did miss my friends and family...

If Yami didn’t know of a way home, though, then I’d just have to get over it. Though, when things seemed to be calming down for the night, Luck was actually the one to show me to a room. “Hey, Luck? Could I ask you to try something? Knowing my luck, it won’t work, but I’d really appreciate it if you’d try...”

I pulled out my phone. “Could you try pushing a little electricity magic into this? You guys use magic for everything in this world, but we don’t have that in mine. We have technology, and it runs on electricity. This has photos of my family and friends. If I can’t find a way home, it’s all I have left.”

I wiped at my eyes, giving a self-deprecating laugh. “Sorry, I’m falling apart a little. Everything is just starting to sink in.”

Luck mostly ignored my outburst, which I appreciated. He just took my phone, and did as I’d asked him. I heard the charging noise, and my eyes lit up. I looked at the screen, and nearly burst into tears again. It was working. Of course, it was still just simply charging it, but what mattered was that it worked. I let out a shaky breath.

“Okay. Miracle of miracles. It’s working.” I peaked at how long it said until fully charged. Little under an hour. I wouldn’t make Luck do that. “It’ll take a while to charge, so I’ll only ask you to do that when I really need it. I have most of- actually, I think...”

While Luck was still charging it, I pulled up my manga app. Went to my downloads. I  _ did _ have all of Black Clover downloaded, I’d wanted to have it for when my internet kept cutting out. “I do have the full other version of events here. That will be very useful, my memory is far from perfect, and I’m sure I missed some things. I’ll probably ask you to do this when I need to go over things with others. Thank you so much, Luck! I promise I’ll fight you when I’m stronger in return for it.”

Luck smiled, clearly enthused to have someone who’d fight with him. “Sounds fun! What’s your magic?”

“Flame summoning magic! I still need to play around with it some more, but I’ve already summoned my kitsune. It’s so cute! I hope I get other ones!” I was super excited for it. The character I normally ended up playing in D&D was a kitsune, after all. And now I could actually fight with one!

“Sounds like fun! I look forward to fighting with you!” Most people probably saw Luck’s smile as demented or out of place. I just saw someone who threw his everything into distracting himself.

I’d help with the distractions until I could help Luck not need them.

When Luck left my new room, I did a little work to get it looking a little better, then settled down with my phone to read a little more into the situation with Mars and Fana. I wanted to be prepared for the fight to come.

After about an hour of research, I turned my phone off and tucked into bed. It took me a while to fall asleep, I couldn’t stop thinking of my family and friends. They must be so worried... Eventually though, I did manage to get some sleep.

The next morning, I knew what I needed to do. First, I took my phone to Luck, and asked him to charge it. “It might take a while, but I need to go over things with the Magic King. Need my phone to be charged so I can do so.”

Luck sent me to go train while he charged my phone. I shrugged, but did as I was told. I found the three I was training with yesterday, and we started all over again. My fox was a little more powerful, a little faster. But the other three were, too. Still, I was happy when I managed to use my fox for longer. Then Luck found us, and gave me back my phone. I turned to Finral.

“I realized I have more information I need to share with the magic king. Could you take me to the capital, please? Well, once I ask if Yami wants to come with, too.” Yami sent the two of us off alone, and I made my way to the castle while Finral got up to his normal antics.

When I got to the castle, it took me a while to find Julius in the massive structure. Eventually, I found my way to that same room I’d first met him in. He was there, with Marx. “Yo! Wanted to share a few more things with you! Also, I promised to show you the difference between anime and manga. Luck managed to charge my phone, so I’ll be able to use it more than expected.”

Marx spluttered. “Who are you? How dare you speak to the wizard king in such a way!”

However, Julius had sparkles in his eyes. I laughed a little. In response to Marx, I spoke. “Julius is just a man. He deserves respect for all he can do, and has done. But I’m not going to treat him like some untouchable being.”

Julius smiled, seeming pleased by my response. “It’s okay, Marx. She is an important ally.”

Marx settled down some, so I pulled out my phone. “Okay, so I realized that I do actually have the full manga on my phone, up to the latest update as of when I was pulled here. That means we can go over it, and I’m sure you can give a lot more insight into things. I don’t think it’s exactly the same as this world, but hopefully enough details are the same. Before that, though, time to show you anime!”

I opened my phone up to where I had the scenes from the anime saved. I chose the one with Yuno and Asta, since I really loved that one the best. It started in the middle of the fight between the elf that was in Klaus and Asta. Ended after Yuno said he would become the wizard king.

At the end of it, Julius seemed almost overwhelmed. I smiled. “You rely on magic so much in this world. We don’t have that in mine, so we developed technology to make life easier. And with things like anime, more enjoyable.”

Julius nodded. “And anyone can use this technology?”

“Yeah. Of course, the more skill you have with it, the more you can do, but that’s par for the course.” That seemed to plant a seed in Julius, and I hoped it meant he’d develop technology further. But that wasn’t really why I was here. I swapped over to my manga app.

I started to go over it, though I did have to explain what was said since it was written in English. We dissected the first couple volumes, before Julius had to attend to other duties. “Alright. I’ll come back around in a couple days or so. We’re caught up to present day, so next we can start looking at what I want to tackle next.”

Julius nodded. “I’ll be free again in two days around 9. I’ll see you then.”

I went back to the castle town to find Finral, who had apparently given up on flirting while my meeting had dragged on. “Sorry about that. We got through the first part, and plan on meeting again in two days time. Julius certainly has a good idea for details. I’d leave my phone with him, but he can’t read my language, and Luck has to charge my phone for it to work.”

Finral waved me off. “I don’t really know what’s going on, but if the wizard king thinks it’s so important, then I don’t mind being your ride.”

I smiled, and made some small chat as we walked out of the castle town so Finral could use his spacial magic. When we got back to the base, I let everyone know I was going to do some solo training, and left my phone with Luck to charge before my next meeting with Julius.

I still hadn’t read through all of my spells, and I wandered into the forest a little to take a moment to read what I did have. It seemed like they were all focused on making my fox stronger. I started to test some of them out, finding magic to be a lot of fun. And my kitsune was really cute!

I made my way back to the base after a while, trying to decide what to do. Asta answered that for me, by pulling me aside for physical training. It was brutal, but surprisingly I didn’t mind it at all.

Eventually, I was worn out in many ways. Magically, physically- it had been a long day. I settled in bed, and found that I slept quite easily. Thankfully.

The next morning, I was woken up by Asta to go do some early morning physical training. We then did magic training with Vanessa and Finral until I couldn’t hold my magic anymore. Then more physical training. Training, training, training.

I’d gotten into the squad easy because of my knowledge, but I didn’t want to be a burden. I’d train like mad, until I could keep up. I’d only take breaks often enough to keep from getting sick.

One of my visits with Julius, Patri was there. He let me know that there was good progress with getting the two Fana’s separated. He looked different, no longer trying to imitate Licht.

And he flirted with me.

Crap. I officially had a crush. It didn’t help that William was also being really nice to me. I didn’t fully know how to respond.

Unfortunately, the dungeon was found before Fana was ready. We’d hoped to have her, but planned for not having her.

I was to lead a team, which was a little nerve wracking. I was a bit of an upstart, and had only been training for a short while! But Julius wanted it, and I decided to give in. My team was to have The six who originally went, alongside myself and surprisingly enough, Patri. Since we mostly wanted to keep that William and Patri shared a body quiet, only those who already knew would be told. So really only Asta and Yuno would know that I was commanding a captain. Everyone else would just think that Patri was just a magic knight who’d joined at the same time as me, but not part of any one squad.

We stood in front of the dungeon, and I breafing everyone as to the plan. Patri, Yuno, Asta, Mimosa and I were to search for the treasure room, while Klaus, Luck, and Noelle were to look for any Diamond Kingdom mages. I’d already let Luck know that he was really looking for the man that Mars would have come with. They were to detain him, while we would get Mars. I’d gone over Luck’s fight from the manga with him to give him the best chance.

Klaus seemed to bite back the want to protest. I knew that William had asked him very kindly to listen to me. Noelle, however, had no qualms about protesting. Seems that she didn’t like how pissy I got about her attitude. “Why should I listen to a foreigner like you?”

I sighed, and leveled her with a flat look. “Because the Wizard King put me in charge of this mission. We worked very hard to come up with this plan, so I’d appreciate if you’d cooperate with Klause and Luck.”

Noelle sniffed, but didn’t argue it further. Which was good, we needed to get to work. “Watch out for traps. Mimosa, if you could use your magic to help us find the treasure room?”

And with that, we were off. Yuno used his magic to move us without risking running into traps, so we didn’t need to worry about that. When we got to the treasure room, I turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, Yuno, Asta. Head inside. You know what you need to get. The rest of us will keep watch.”

With that, Asta tore the door open with a few strikes of his sword. Everything was going to plan, which was relieving to say the least. Mimosa seemed confused, but she listened to my commands. Which was good because Mars walked in soon after. Looks like we were just in time.

That’s when things stopped going to plan. Next to Mars was another person with embedded stones who I did not recognize at all. We already went through everything! This guy didn’t even appear in the version of this world I’d read about!

I steeled myself. There was no time to be surprised. I turned to Patri. “We’ll take the extra, as soon as Asta and Yuno get back. It’ll likely be a tough fight for the others, but we don’t know the strength of the second guy.”

Then, I turned back to the two who were now getting closer. I put on a false smile. “Hello! I’m sorry, but we’re claiming the magic items here! If it prevents a fight, however, I’ll be happy to leave all of the other riches, such as the gold and gems to you two.”

I was a terrible negotiator. Still, I did my best not to mention the two items Yuno and Asta had grabbed. They would just seem like a part of their grimoires, so they didn’t need to know-

Asta ran out of the room, waving his new sword around. I mentally pleaded for him to not say he just found it, but it was to no avail. “This sword is so cool!”

Thankfully Yuno was a little more sensible, reading the situation before making any remarks. He spoke up himself, in an only slightly more tactful way. “There are several magic items inside, along with a lot of gold.”

Asta calmed down a little when he realized that I was talking with two people from the Diamond kingdom. I put my smile right back in place. “Please disregard my youngest members. They’re excited to be out on a mission. Now, does my deal for the exchange of wealth seem alright?”

The new person gave me a chilling look. I had to focus not to let it visibly affect me. “How about no. We will be taking all of the items. I have no interest in making deals with lower life forms.”

I sighed. “Well shucks. I’d been hoping to end this without fighting.”

I put a hand near my Grimoire, as did the rest of my team. Our opponents didn’t do the same, but I knew that was because they didn’t feel pressured enough. I summoned my fox, which seemed to kickstart the fight.

It wasn’t going well. Even with Patri fighting with me, our opponent was very powerful. I wasn’t good at fighting yet, and this guy fought with poison magic. Every time I got hit, I felt progressively worse.

When I got really woozy, I fought through it. When I coughed up blood, I got concerned, but kept fighting. When I fell over, I retreated back to Mimosa. She started to heal me, but it wasn’t very fast.

Apparently I was helping Patri more than I thought, as once I pulled back he started taking hits. The others were struggling against Mars, too. Things were going very sour, but I didn’t want to retreat. What else could I do though? I couldn’t just watch as my precious new friends were beaten in a fight.

I opened my mouth to call the retreat, when I heard a loud noise. No one else seemed to have heard it. I turned my head back to the treasure room. I stumbled to my feet, holding a hand up to silence Mimosa when she went to complain. I started to stagger towards the treasure room.

Once I was in the treasure room, I heard the noise again. I turned to pinpoint it, and saw a statue of a phoenix. The same phoenix that was on my grimoire. I gently touched the statue, and it burst into flame. Strangely, the flame didn’t burn my hand. The flames burnt away the pale grey stone of the statue (Ashes?) and the bird within spread its wings.

It was an honest to god phoenix. “Hello, My Chosen. Let me assist you.”

The voice was that of a woman. She flew out of the treasure room, and I slowly followed her out. I was just quick enough to see as she flew over the battlefield. She dived at the poison magician, who caught on fire with beautiful spectral blue flames. He screamed in pain, but seemed unable to put the fire out.

Next she flew over to Mars. She seemed to understand that I didn’t want him to be hurt, so in his case he was just bound by orange flames. They burned away his magic every time he tried to use it. She flew back over to me, and I held an arm up for her to land on. It felt natural, despite the fact that I’d only held a bird like this a few times before.

She was warm, washing away the chill that had settled over me over the past few weeks while I tried to get accustomed to the colder temperatures of the Clover Kingdom. Some of the dizziness from the poison also went away.

I looked over the battlefield, where a sort of calm seemed to have fallen. “Tie up the two of them. We’ll take both back with us.”

By the time both enemies were secured, Luck, Klause, and Noelle arrived. They hadn’t managed to capture their opponent, but I didn’t mind that too much. “Let’s pack up as many of the magic items as we can. Mimosa, Patri, and I will guard these two.”

I didn’t want the smoke magic guy to manage to grab Mars out from under my nose. Mimose could heal Patri and I, as the poison we’d both been infected with seemed to be worse than the other’s wounds. Since the phoenix seemed to be helping heal me, I had Mimosa start with Patri.

I pet the feathers on the top of the phoenix’s head. She leaned into it, seeming to like the affection. “Looks like I’ll have to learn about what a phoenix is.”

Patri spoke. “A phoenix is a very peculiar creature. They are very strong, but will only listen to the person they’ve chosen. If their chosen passes, they will turn to an ashen statue until they next choose someone.”

“Huh. A four leaf clover grimoire, and now a phoenix. I wonder if people from my world are just loved by the magic here. Yami has very powerful magic of his own, after all.”

The phoenix spoke up at my speculation. “Even for one from another world, you are special. That is why you were Chosen.”

I hummed. “I see. I’m very grateful for your help. What is your name?”

“I have no name. That is up to you to decide.” I noticed that Patri and Mimosa didn’t seem able to hear the phoenix. Her words seemed to only be for my ears.

“No name, huh. How about Amber?” I felt like the name suited her. She’d looked to be made of stone when I first saw her, and Amber was an orange stone that often held fossils.

Amber gave a happy trill. “I like the name, My Chosen.”

“I’m glad.” I was starting to feel much better, though still not perfect. After a while, most of the magic items had been gathered, and everyone met outside of the treasure room. While I didn’t say it, this was so the smoke guy could gather up some riches. I doubted that the Diamond kingdom was actually as poor off as it was made out to be, but if it was... well there was no harm in vacating the area while Mimosa finished healing everyone.

Once Asta’s sword made its way into his grimoire, however, it was time to leave. I had Yuno take us out quickly, captives and all. We started back towards the capital after that, to go report to Julius and hand over the magic items.

On the way back, I was asked about Amber. “She says she chose me. I don’t know much about phoenixes.”

I was too tired to answer more questions. Amber let that known with an angry call when more were asked. “Please fill Klause and Mimosa in with the details we couldn’t on the way here. I need to rest.”

Pretty much right after saying that, I fell unconscious. Heavy magic use, poison, and my first fight had worked a number on me.

I was shaken awake as we neared the capital. I yawned and sat up. When we landed, I was a little shaky on my feet, but otherwise alright. “Okay, Luck, Yuno, please come with Patri and I. The rest of you are dismissed, thank you for your hard work. You all did wonderful.”

The others all left, and I had Asta and Yuno each carry a captive. We went up to the capital, and delivered the captives to a cell that accounted for their magic powers. Then we went to go report to Julius.

I was worn out, but Julius’ excitement at seeing Amber made things a little brighter. When I explained that there was another fighter with Mars, things got serious.

When I said that I'd managed to catch the curve ball, Julius smiled. “Good. I’ll have him questioned to see if we can piece this together. Go get some rest, you earned it.”

I slumped, happy to be dismissed. “Thank you, Ju.”

The nickname had slipped out in my exhaustion, but no one commented on it, so I didn’t either. If he didn’t mind being called Ju, then I’d call him that.

Patri offered to make sure I got back to the base safely, and I accepted with a slight blush.

When I stood from my chair, I staggered a little. I felt really lightheaded. When I coughed, a few specks of blood showed. My knees wobbled, and I barely made it back into my chair when I practically collapsed.

Patri rushed over to my side, with a concerned call of my name. I coughed some more, a much larger amount of blood being lost. I looked to Patri with a panicked look. When my attempt to speak just turned onto more coughing, it was enough for Julius to tell Patri to get the healer.

I passed out before the healer could even get to me.

When I woke up, I was on a medical bed. I still felt pretty bad, and wanted to just sleep some more. Before I could fall back asleep, though, William entered the room. “Marie! You’re finally awake.”

I gave a displeased noise. “What happened?”

“You fell ill with Foul Magic. It’s an illness most get while they’re still a child, and their magic weak. It is much worse the more mana you have, and you have quite a lot. I am very glad you made it through the worst of it.” I could see how sincere he was about that last statement, and it made me wonder how bad it had been.

“How long was I...” I was slurring a little bit, despite my best efforts to keep my voice clear. I wondered if that was because of the illness.

“Two weeks. Your body mostly shut down while fighting the sickness.”

“Oh. I see.” I moved to try to sit up, but found that I was incredibly weak at the moment. My arms would not support me enough to even sit up. I morbidly wondered just how close to death I’d been, if I couldn’t even sit up now.

Seeing my struggle, William moved to help me sit up. He practically hugged me to do so, causing me to blush quite red. William was the captain of the best squad, right? Why was I here, instead of at my own base? I let out a shy, flustered “Thanks.”

When William continued to help me, giving me water and such, my emotions were waging between embarrassment, and confusion. The confusion was easier to deal with. “Why am I here and not at my base?”

“Amber would only allow the healer, Yami, and myself near you. Yami is on a mission, and the healer needed to be able to tend to other patients, so I agreed to watch over you.”

I flushed, turning over to where Amber was sitting on a perch next to my bed. “A-amber!”

“What? It’s in my instincts. I couldn’t let anyone but you trust most near you.” That did make some sense, but...

“If that’s why, then why not Asta or Yuno? Or any of other Black Bulls?”

Amber  _ preened _ . “Why, that was just me being a good wing-woman.”

Yup. It was official. I was dying of embarrassment. I whined, a drawn out and almost painful noise. “I did not ask for that, Amber. Please, never do that again, I’m so embarrassed.”

“It’s not like you’ll act on your own, will you?”

“That’s besides the point! And if that was the case, then why Yami!” I was practically shouting with my frustration.

“It’s good for a man to have competition. You seem to view him very positively.”

“How do you even know all that?”

“I share a link with your soul.”

“Then you should know I wouldn’t want you to do that!”

I took a deep breath, turning away from my featherbrain and back to William. He seemed a little confused, only being able to hear half the conversation. “I’m very sorry about that. Amber got an idea in her little featherbrain-” “Hey!” “Ahem, in her  _ little featherbrain _ that made her think it would be a good idea to make your life harder. I apologize about that.”

“I’m right here, you know! Quit ignoring me!” I paid no attention to Amber, ignoring her ruffled feathers. I was... very grouchy with her, to say the least.

“It is alright. I do not mind taking care of such a dear friend.” Ah, and there was the blush back at full force again. And I’d be stuck here for a while, until I could actually, you know, move on my own.

I ignored Amber’s gloating, muttering out a shy “Thank you.”

What had my bird signed me up for?

**Author's Note:**

> You know, sometimes you start writing, then suddenly realize that you like the caracter you didn't really care about in the anime/manga. Except I ship him with someone else already... so three way! Meh this is trash anyways, but I hope someone has fun reading it.
> 
> My Black Clover Discord: https://discord.gg/4x2FKza


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